The World Wide Web (web) has rapidly become an invaluable tool to individuals and businesses. Not only can an individual or business post information on the web, but it can also use the web to transact business. Because the public is acutely aware of the web's business and personal benefits, millions of web pages are being added to the web each year.
Typically, a web page is defined by a document containing Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) code. An HTML document suitable for posting on the internet includes both “content” and “markup.” The content is information which describes a web page's text or other information for display or playback on a computer's monitor, speakers, etc. The markup is information which describes the web page's behavioral characteristics, such as how the content is displayed and how other information can be accessed via the web page.
In order to provide web-based information and services over the internet, the web employs “client” computers, “browser” software, and “server” computers. A client computer is a computer used by an individual to connect to the internet and access web pages. A browser is a software application, located on a client computer, which requests, via the internet, a web page from a server computer. After receiving the web page, the browser displays the web page on the client computer's monitor. A server computer is a computer which stores web page information, retrieves that information in response to a browser's request, and sends the information, via the internet, to the client computer. Thus, after a web page is created, the page should be “posted” to a particular server computer which “hosts” the page, so that the page can be accessed over the internet.
One web-based service that has seen steady growth in the past decade is e-commerce. The percentage of sales made over the internet continues to grow by double-digits annually. With an adjusted retail sales value of over $36 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2007, the percentage of retail sales conducted over the internet increased nearly 5% over the same period the previous year, and accounted for 3.5% of total retail sales in 2007.
With this kind of opportunity for online sales, web merchants are anxious to learn how to leverage the benefits of e-commerce to maximize their own sales. Carefully planned and executed marketing campaigns allow e-commerce merchants to increase sales and return on investment. E-mail marketing, search engine advertising (keyword management) and affiliate marketing are just some types of popular marketing campaigns. Whatever type of campaign chosen, the key to a successful campaign is determining what brought the customer, or end-user, to the point of purchase.
Web analytics is focused on analyzing and understanding buyer behavior, expanding a customer base and increasing customer loyalty. When web analytics are applied to marketing campaigns, merchants may discover which campaign or campaign feature brought the customer to the point of purchase. However, a merchant may run concurrent campaigns, or use campaign features, such as site link tracking or natural search which may make it difficult to understand the path that led the customer to the final point of purchase. A need exists to provide merchants with a clearer indication of which campaign actually resulted in a sale.
The present invention provides a solution to these needs and other problems, and offers other advantages over the prior art.